Tom Brady calls out the NFL for getting softer

Sports, football, and the NFL have come a long way throughout the years. With new studies, technology, and a different kind of viewership; they’ve tried to protect players by enforcing some rules that aren’t always welcome by the fans.

This year’s emphasis on taunting and personal foul penalties has made the games unwatchable to some extent. Referees want players to be automats and just get on to the next play regardless of they made a huge stop, broke 5 tackles, or got a game-winning pick-six.

That’s why even legendary quarterback Tom Brady decided to talk about how much the game has changed, stating that most of these new penalties are more due to an offensive player’s inability to protect themselves rather than an actual foul from defenders.

Tom Brady Says The NFL Is Getting Soft

(Transcript via ProFootballTalk)

“I think there’s probably a lot of shortsightedness,” Brady said. “You know, when I hear that a lot, because I’ve heard over the years, you know, ‘Oh, the game is changing,’ and so forth. I think the game changes in different ways, absolutely. It evolves and changes and grows and hopefully it’s getting better. And at the same time I think that there has always been, you know, incredible athletes playing professional football at the quarterback position. Randall Cunningham was an incredible athlete. Kenny Stabler was an incredible quarterback. Roger Staubach was. Michael Vick, I mean, I don’t know if there’s anyone more athletic that’s ever played than Michael Vick. . . . I think it definitely adds an element to the game.

“But at the same time the name of the game is scoring points. So there’s definitely more volatility, I would say, in that style of play over a period of time. You’re definitely more injury prone because you’re out of the pocket. You don’t have the types of protection that you typically have in the pocket. And I would say the one thing that’s probably changed over the years in terms of why it’s probably gone a little more this way is, and I’ve alluded to this in the past, I think they’re calling more penalties on defensive players for hitting, you know, for violent contact. And I think when you’re out of the pocket, you know, we got called on a play yesterday where Ryan Jensen‘s going basically to protect our runner and they throw an unnecessary roughness on an offensive lineman that I don’t think would have been called, you know, five years ago. There’s a lot of plays and hits that are happening on quarterbacks now, that are flags for defensive players, that probably weren’t that way 10 or 15 years ago. So I’d say the game is a little softer than it used to be. I think the defensive players are more on the defensive when they go in to tackle. And I think that’s probably adding to this element of quarterbacks outside the pocket and taking more chances, you know, than they did in the past.”

Well, he said it. Not us. In reality, if they really wanted to protect the players, they would enforce a different kind of equipment or would at least take care of them and their health issues after retirement.